Why Adsense makes no sense

22 September 2009

Like a lot of businesses large and small, I use Google Adwords to attract new business. People tell me it’s expensive, but it works for me. If I spend £10 and make £11 then, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a deal.

Now, one of the options on Adwords is Adsense. This is a way of placing sponsored ads on all manner of web pages that contain content relevant to the ads. (The regular Adwords ads simply display the sponsored boxes in response to a specific Google search.)

Now, the trouble with Adsense is that your ad is usually displayed to people who have absolutely no interest in buying your product or service. It simply attracts window-shoppers. Expensive window-shoppers, at that (each click on my ‘copywriting’ sponsored ad costs me about £1.50).

But here’s a far more damaging effect of Adsense. In an article today by Roger Moore (yes, that Roger Moore) on the evil practices involved in foie-gras production, what should pop up at the foot of the page but an Adsense box advertising ‘delicious duck and goose foie gras’.

So, there we have it — the complete inability of Google Adsense to distinguish between negative and positive content. Can you imagine the damage that little ad will do to that foie-gras supplier?